Galileo Mission Status Report

GALILEO MISSION STATUS

June 2, 1994

The Galileo spacecraft is now well beyond the asteroid belt,
heading for its mid-July observations of Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9's
impact with the night side of Jupiter. The spacecraft is still
transmitting scientific observations and images stored onboard
from its August 28, 1993, flyby of the asteroid Ida and its newly
discovered moon. The science team reported preliminary analyses
of Ida and the moon late last month.

The flight team is planning to have Galileo observe Comet
Shoemaker-Levy-9's multiple impacts from a distance of 240
million kilometers (150 million miles). The spacecraft will be
the only observer in a position to image the impact sites, which
will be out of view of Earth. The data will be stored on
Galileo's onboard tape recorder for later playback.

Almost a year later, in July 1995, the spacecraft will
release its Jupiter atmospheric entry probe. From that point,
the orbiter and probe will fly separately to Jupiter. Probe
entry, atmospheric data relay and orbit insertion will all occur
on December 7, 1995. The orbiter will then collect data about
Jupiter, its major moons and its magnetosphere for the next two
years.

The Galileo spacecraft is operating normally, spinning at 3
rpm and transmitting over the low-gain antenna at 40 bits per
second. It is currently 678 million kilometers (421 million
miles) from the sun, about 570 million kilometers (350 million
miles) from Earth, and now less than 250 million kilometers (155
million miles) from Jupiter.